ChrisCH

Was thinking about this on the way home. The Rennes event was organised by the local club who are (like all French clubs) FIM affiliated. I wondered if we suffer as ACU don't push the X-Trial agenda? No idea if this is relevant or not. (The kids from the local club got to have their 15 mins of fame!) The event was good - the Glaz Arena in Rennes is smallish and so you got close enough to really see what was going on. We were a couple of rows back, just right to smell the 2 stroke and see the riders' faces. The crowd were enjoying the event and I guess the arena was at about 80% capacity. There was a bar laid on for the break but you had to buy tokens and I hadn't so missed out on the beer. Not a disaster. It was a good event and loads of kids there. Very family friendly and a good night out. Finished about 12 so lots of tired youngsters. There is a lot of parking there and a big supermarket with a multi storey nearby. We ate in the Buffalo Grill just before the opening, so full of steak and chips and red wine. Nice. Only downside is the long ferry crossing from here (Poole) to Cherbourg. 2 hours drive to Rennes once you get to Cherbourg. Sunday night ferry back was delayed and got home 12.30 this morning. I would do it again but yes please can we have it in the UK please? Ferry was £290 and €90 for the hotel Saturday night. With a free day Sunday we drove back along the coast and had a nice lunch at a local market we found. Very pleasant until it got dark and then a boring wait for the late running ferry.

As I have the bike at work I practice in ordinary boots and work trousers. I wonder if you would get the same feedback in trials boots. I have tried hard to use the feedback through the soles of my feet to get the balance right. As the bike leans then it is inevitable your calf will touch the bike as best I can see. No idea what is right/wrong but my experience suggests that as you get better you can use the pegs more which (I hope) is the correct way to balance when you are actually riding. One thing I do try to do is move the front wheel from one lock to the other as I have needed to do this when on a section. Generally this causes me to overbalance even if I have managed to balance OK on full lock. For me this is "stage three". Stage four might now be with the front wheel facing forwards - see just as I thought I was getting somewhere you guys add a new challenge. Hmmph. Thanks a lot. ?

If it is the same then I think it is : https://www.trials-action.de/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=27&products_id=1176&osCsid=d03c3dfb5a286e5b956b0bba4b3439fa The filler and drain are the same thread I believe? Also : https://www.bts-motorradteile.de/Beta-Evo-300-70539/de/motor/motorschmierung/oelablassschraube/oelablassschraubemagnetischjmpbc260007c.html pattern part? I wish my German was better. kinderleicht! [edit] I can see why you are struggling - I would have thought there were lots of on line places in Germany but there are not [/edit] Sometimes it just pays to stick at it ? https://www.neubert-racing.com/search/result?q=2900451 000 PS thanks Reggie for the part number - makes life easier.....

If you want to get a return on the money (I assume the promoters do) you have to look at the biggest available population that might want to go. The O2 arena makes the most business sense. The population of London is about 9 million and it has very good transport links to the surrounding areas. All in all a catchment of maybe what, 15 million, 20 even? Next trial after Rennes is Budapest. Total population of Hungary 9.8m (Coventry is very good for me personally BTW - friends there) I really can't believe that it wouldn't get at or near capacity here. Who do we shout at to get one here?

Next weekend in Rennes. I have tickets.... Sheff is OK but a long drive (further than Rennes if you ignore the ferry). Why oh why can we not have a round in the highly populated south? Are there really not enough people to fill an event and not enough revenues to be had? You don't have to like trials to find it entertaining. Guildford would be great (I'm sure Gordon Farley would be pleased)

I have been riding now for a year and started on a 250 Rev 3. I think there is a lot of negativity about bigger bikes, some with good reason and some probably because there are people starting trials that have not had the background motorcycle experience. If you have done MX then the power is not going to scare you, but it is - in my opinion - unnecessary and will make learning the new skills more difficult. The popularity of 250cc is for a reason. Also a 250 is easy to sell on as it is the capacity so many people want, you will see the 300s are slower to sell. (I watched eBay for a long time to source the wife's Evo) I bought my 280 because I couldn't find a decent 250 for sale anywhere at the time and the missus had started to hog the old Beta so I didn't get to ride much. The power difference was a step change and took about a month to get used to the new bike. I am half tempted to go down to 250 but having shelled out I cannot really afford the change unless I got a really good offer on my current bike and found a very sweet deal - too much hassle so will carry on. I like the additional power on climbs but really it is no big shakes. The missus new 250 Evo is just as good really. For me personally it is the quality of the brakes and the general feel that are important not the capacity. The better braking on my TRS gives me more confidence and the one thing I want to improve on the Evo. My missus has not progressed as quick as me (despite being a road rider and well used to motorbikes) so it is OK for her for now. I have ridden road bikes for longer than I care to admit and mountainbike as well. Trials is great fun but not easy. Balance seems to me to be the critical thing and far more important than lots of revs and gung-ho up some massive obstacle. The 250cc class falls nicely between the high power 300 for going up a 2m rock face and the 125cc bikes for youngsters. If you find a nice 250 it will not disappoint you I am sure. In fact I doubt that a 125 would disappoint you to be honest. All motorbikes are great fun and trials is fantastic entertainment - I wish so much I had started 30 years ago. I might be as good as all the nippers in the club then!

Sadly Maplin is no more. They went bust a while back and I cannot find the chip anywhere on the Internet. Meantime you will probably find the only solution is to spend more time practising. I have the bike at work and can do a 10-15 minute balance most days and have got to the point I can balance OK on left full lock, so-so on right full lock. With the wheels in line I think you are going to struggle to keep upright all that long. Lowering the tyre pressure helps but I try to keep the pressure up so when actually riding (with the pressure lower) it is easier and lets you concentrate on other stuff. I have scoured YouTube for every tutorial I can find and cannot see any clever techniques that make it any easier. We also went for some mountainbike coaching recently which included balancing (it's called a track stand on a push bike) and the bloke was ace but he too said it's just practice. I've just passed the one year anniversary of riding now and am quite pleased with my progress but I can see if you extrapolate the same rate of progress it will be 4-5 years before I get to be any good. The better riders at our club are all 5 years or so on the pegs. It helps to start when you are a nipper as well - I can't do anything about that, but I should have a pleasant hobby in retirement ?

For mountainbiking we find a helmet mounted lamp is good as it illuminates what you are looking at (and so going to tackle) rather than what the headstock is pointed at. I agree with rcgods - the new generation LED MTB lights are very good. You will find lots of reviews of different makes on the MTB sites. Get a rechargeable li-ion battery with a long cord so the light unit is lightweight for helmet mounting. From memory they are a couple of hundred for a decent one and if you look hard there are some half decent cheap ones at about 110 ish.

I share your desire for a "project". I think if you are mechanical it is just a natural way to be. I would enjoy that old heap of crap and returning it to good order. But I am sure we both know that financially it is a fool's errand. Anything vaguely "worn out" just doesn't make sense. If the start price was free you might (just) get a decent ride at a reasonable outlay, but 4-500 is way too much. I guess it might (just) be worth that for spares if someone needed a donor bike and the parts that are needed correspond to the good bits of the donor. I am very lucky because I don't have the time to do anything up and my missus soon unleashes the Paddington Bear stare whenever such a "project" is mentioned. ?

Looks great - hope you enjoy it. Post up some pictures when you ride it.

Why buy a superb bike then spend more money on it? There is a guy in our club has the factory Beta and loves it - he has been riding 4 years and is better than me but not Bou by a long way. I imagine our conditions are very similar to North Belgium? People buy the 300 then spend lots de-tuning it. My wife's (2014) 250 Evo is a bit lacking in refinement and needs slightly better brakes and other features that (I think) the newer factory models probably have. It's still a very good bike and she loves it. If I had the cash I would upgrade it to a newer factory 250 to get the better brakes and other cycle parts. The engine is faultless.

Je suis ta père, Luc

I would buy the 250. For a start it is the factory option which has better parts fitted. Second unless you are really very good the extra power is wasted, you simply don't have the ability to use it. I have recently bought a 250 Evo for my wife and it is very good. It is an older bike than the 2017 and not the factory option. It is slightly less powerful than my TRS but the main difference is it is just an older bike and a bit worn out. Upgrading to a 2017 factory would be nice and give her a bike that would last for years. Her problem would be that I would want it and try to use it all the time. ?

Hmmm. There is a truth many don't see - you only ever really compete with yourself. If being "better" than someone else is important to you you are pretty sad. It is always easy to find people less talented if you try and just as easy to find people more talented. My club is friendly and helpful to newer riders like me and not about winning - at least for the majority. We have a few good riders that take it seriously and ride other venues and want to win - good luck to them. They are friendly and helpful too on the whole. I love green lanes but the missus has no interest (working on it). The club meeting is a cheap and easy way to get to ride my bike for a few hours and the organised route gives me a marker as to how well I am progressing in my skills rather than any "competitive" element. You get to watch other people and learn and also to see that you are not so bad, nor so good. We all have a good laugh and it is a pleasant way to spend time. I very much enjoy riding the trials bike, just as I enjoy my road bike. The trials meeting is a cheap and easy way to spend time on my bike. If I ever work out what all the little flags are and how the scoring works I might try to get something called a "clean" (I think that's what they call it). Meantime I am having a hoot riding a bike.

We visited the shop on the way down to the coast last year. It is huge and a very lovely place if you like trials bikes and everything that goes with them. The missus wanted to try on some ladies' pants and virtually no one in the UK holds stock in female sizes. We stayed overnight in Grenoble and drove through the mountains the next morning. Totally stunning. I am trying to find an excuse to go again this year. Must be something we need?

Do you know what size spoke it is? I am sure you should be able to get them easily somewhere without shipping them in from the UK. Is this the one? https://www.dherbeymoto.com/marchand/piece_detachee_p2.php?num_rubrique=4&num_type=134&num_produit=3712&page=piece&num_rub=4&type_recherche=moto Click down to see what it fits. 1998 Techno 125/250. Under two Euro. How's your French? I find these guys to be very helpful and knowledgable. Or just order off the W3

BVM have two (250) for sale now. I bought mine from John Lee and they had three (280) to choose from. I wanted a Beta for the missus and found it much harder to source as everyone wants them, they come up for sale but sell quickly. I bought the 280 as I couldn't get a 250 at the time and couldn't afford the one 250 that was up for sale. It was a bit challenging at first (Rev 3 250 before) but I like it now and don't have any issue with the power. To be fair the missus' Beta starts a lot easier.

No idea about speedway but the dealers near us do classic trials stuff and have that size tyre. It's available online if you want one. https://www.feked.com/ensign-19-rear-trials-tyre-350x19-100-100-19.html

I have read this with interest as this topic is always something worth understanding. Surely the best way forward with classic tanks would be to build a metal tank then use fibreglass to get the final shape in order to accurately reproduce the original look of the bike? Modern fuel tanks are plastic and seem to be able to cope with modern fuels. Old bikes had metal tanks and there was only a short while when other materials were experimented with. The faff and expense of ethanol free fuels like Aspen is surely greater than the cost of fabricating a new tank from metal then coating it?

I've never ridden a four stroke trials bike so no idea. I can only give you my first impressions as someone like you that has had dirt bikes in the past (and lots of road bikes). I bought the TRS 280 as it was all that was available when looking. If you are used to a dirt bike I don't think it is too much at all. The biggest thing for trials is the clutch and the throttle and getting smooth power to the ground with slipping the clutch. Personally I don't find the power too much and I doubt you would either if you have similar background to me. Lots of people talk about the bike being too much and there are lots of things you can do, but the real secret is learn to ride better. Just remember to slow down - trials is slow and control, not about power and revs. I don't think I have got above one third throttle on my TRS yet. A 250 two stroke is probably the best selling and most popular bike there is and the TRS is a nice bike if it is in your budget. The Beta 250 is very good also. A 300cc is probably a bit much to start on.

You will outgrow the 125 quickly, the TRS probably never.

UK law does not allow you to take away liability for personal injury by notice. So any sign saying you do x,y or z at your own risk can only be applied to equipment loss. Liability is a nightmare as much of the law is case law and revolves round things like "reasonability" which has no real meaning. It is made much worse by the no win no fee ambulance chasers that now earn millions out of people's misfortune. Generally it becomes a battle between the insurance company and the lawyers (should be "lawyers" really). if you - like the OP - are waiting for a change in the law then don't - if they change it it will get worse.

Salve! I am new (October last year) also but so far. Had old Beta Rev 3 - several fork seals, strip and repair carburettor. Now have Beta Evo (2014) for wife also fork seals so far. My bike 2017 TRS - no repairs. We ride about once a week. You need to change the gearbox oil much more often than road bike engine oil, but it is easy and not very expensive. I don't know about prices in Italy but in England it is probably better to buy a newer bike than an old one, the older bikes seem to need more work than the price difference. My TRS was only about 1,400 Euro more than the Beta but is much better mechanically. (Both are nice bikes)

I don't know the details but at our last club meeting I was told the ACU fees have gone up (our entry fee has not). I would think any return of money to the riders is therefore less likely now if I am honest.

If anyone is interested X Trial have recently added a Rennes trial for Nov 23rd. Not too far if you get a ferry from Portsmouth. Ticket sales open Sept 1st.